PRINCE Charles is set to come face to face with one of his ancestors when he officially unveils the restored statue of King Edward VII in Birmingham next week.

PRINCE Charles is set to come face to face with one of his ancestors when he officially unveils the restored statue of King Edward VII in Birmingham next week.

Security is set to be tight for the Royal visit following the attack on the Prince and wife Camilla during the student protests in London a week ago.

The future King will also visit the Frankfurt Christmas Market and perhaps sample a glass of gluhwein during his city centre visit next Wednesday.

His security has been stepped up after student demonstrators ambushed and pelted his Rolls-Royce in Regent Street, London, during tution fee protests. Since then he has attended engagements in an armoured Bentley car, escorted by a phalanx of police vehicles.

But he will find time to talk to traders at the largest German Christmas market outside Germany and Austria. In 1913 crowds turned out to see the King Edward VII statue, made by sculptor Albert Toft, unveiled in Victoria Square and city chiefs are hoping for a similar warm welcome for the statue almost a century later.

City cabinet member for culture Martin Mullaney, who backed the statue’s restoration, said: “We’re delighted with the news that His Royal Highness will be visiting Birmingham next week. I’m sure he’ll be impressed by the way Toft’s superb sculpture has been restored to its former glory.

“This project has been a real team effort with the Victorian Society, Birmingham Civic Society and a range of other stakeholders all playing a part. To get the royal seal of approval represents a fitting end to this restoration project.”

The King Edward statue was commissioned by the Birmingham Mail after readers raised £5,000 to pay for a fitting tribute to the popular monarch, known as the Peacemaker, following his death in 1910.

It was moved from Victoria Square in 1951 and left in Highgate Park for almost 60 years where it was covered in graffiti. But last month, following a £114,000 restoration, it was moved to a plinth next to the Hall of Memory.

Prince Charles will be standing in the shadow of another Birmingham landmark with which he is closely associated, the Central Library, which he famously described as “a place where books are incinerated, not kept”.